From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Mona Holism, kicking off a series of Arts Fridays on Connections for this summer, and our connection was made in 1780 with the premiere of an opera in Paris, L'Amour Anonyme, the Anonymous Lover.

It's a comedy full of intrigue, secret admirers and a love triangle.

Now a comic opera in France with some ballet and lyrical singing, was not really an anomaly at the time, but the composer was Joseph Boulogne.

Joseph Bologna, also known as the Chevalier, the Saint George.

It was not only a composer, conductor and violinist, he was also a famed sword fighter and a free black man who was part of the French court.

Joseph Boulogne was born on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in 1745.

His father, George Boulogne, was a minor French nobleman and plantation owner there.

His mother and a young enslaved black woman of Senegalese descent.

He also belongs father brought him to France at a young age, where he studied music, fencing and more and balloons.

Life was full of adventure and accomplishment, as well as unique challenges.

He formed friendships with Marie-Antoinette and other nobles, and then was in conflict with them as he joined the efforts of the revolution.

Some of this was depicted in the 2022 film Chevalier, which has brought more attention to your own story and music, and now audiences in Rochester will get a rare chance to hear you also belongs.

Only fully surviving opera in a performance this Sunday at 2 p.m. at Ritz Ponta, a theater by Finger Lakes Opera in collaboration with Garth Fagan.

Dance.

There is rich history here.

Some exciting stories, beautiful music, a fresh new production, bringing it all to life in a unique way.

So this is a great chance to talk about it all with some excellent guests in studio with me.

Here we have Stephanie Havey, the artistic director of Finger Lakes Opera.

She's an in-demand director for opera around the country and a frequent collaborator on producing new operatic works.

Hi, Stephanie.

Hello.

Thanks for having me.

We're also joined by Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, a rising star opera singer tenor who starring in this weekend's production of The Anonymous Lover by Joseph Malone.

He's also an Eastman alum, won the William Warfield Scholarship and has been a young artist for several summers at Glimmer Glass Opera.

Hello, Pierce.

Hello.

Thanks for having me.

And also in studio with us, Norwood, P.J.

Penny, well, artistic director of Garth Fagan Dance, well known as having been part of the company since back in 1978, experience both as a dancer and choreographer and as part of bringing new dimensions to this production of The Anonymous Lover, tapping into Joseph Malone's Afro-Caribbean heritage.

Hello.

Hey, it's great to be here.

I'm so glad that we get to talk about again the history, but also the way that we're experiencing it in contemporary art.

So I'm going to start with Stephanie.

Why this opera?

Why now?

What brought you to this work?

This opera was only rediscovered.

During the pandemic and in the years following.

This is an opera that the opera world is really talking about.

Several companies have produced it in conservatories, and I think that, Bologne is a very important composer, part of our music history, our classical music history.

But a composer that I was never taught in, in school.

And so I really wanted to introduce this composer to our audiences and also to dig into this piece.

It stands alone as a great artistic work, but also the context of his writing it and creating this piece, I think is really interesting.

So that's why I wanted to bring it to our students of our season, so that we could dive in deeper.

And before we talk more about the production, I guess I want to open it up to all of you to say, when did you come across Joseph Bologne and his music?

Was he part of your music education, or is he someone you had to find out about later?

Well, for me, this is my second time, you know, working with this piece and this work, I actually performed, one of the arias in a Baroque style concert with Apollo's Fire, where I sang the opening aria.

Paul.

And, it was a really an an interesting process because we did that production in, baroque tuning.

So, like, your production is going to be in a 440, like the standard classical tuning.

But this is more of like a, a like a slower, lower, more, sultry approach to it.

And so getting to do that and getting to do this more accurate operatic version, it's been a really, really eye opening in terms of understanding how he would have wanted it in context.

The piece itself, I'm pretty naive to operate, generally speaking, but I was completely oblivious to who Joseph Boulogne was until the 2022 movie.

So I'm so glad that I had opportunity to see that.

Not too long, after Elizabeth Long brought me in again to help out.

We do also have here with us Elizabeth Long, the executive director of Finger Lakes Opera, who can share some context about the company and what's going on.

But I want to stick with you, PJ, and talk about when this opera was brought to you.

What did you start thinking about with how you would have the movement, how would appear on stage?

Well, you know, the great the great thing about working with Stephanie is she pretty much has complete, trust in whatever it is I'm going to do.

But there was some preliminary conversations with Stephanie about, you know, what the section of the the dance would be about.

And so, you know, Stephanie was very clear about the fact that she wanted to include, a reference to his Caribbean and African background.

So, you know, I have a couple of other things, in the air as as, Stephanie and, Liz.

Liz and I are talking about this, but in the back of my mind, I thought, well, it needs to have some kind of a Caribbean flair.

But I also wanted to stay true to my creative impulse, which is to kind of make it a little bit more impressionistic as well, and kind of postmodern ish.

So I tried to consider all of those elements until, you know, finalizing conversations with, Stephanie about where exactly the piece is going to be and then how it would play and how is it all coming together this week.

I mean, you must be in final rehearsals, the performances this Sunday, we are where we've been in the theater this week, taking and rehearsing with the orchestra, and we did a full run through of the opera last night, and it's just so thrilling to see all of the different pieces come together, and especially in our production, to see different cultures coming together in one production as well.

And that's this is, as we think about the musical style, his Caribbean heritage is not part of this.

It's probably for our audience.

It's more familiar to the contemporary of Mozart and Haydn.

In fact, he conducted premieres of Haydn's Paris symphonies at the concert.

Amateur.

Can you talk a little bit about the musical language?

Well, hearing perhaps, or that you're singing, Pierce.

For me, it really is a purely classical piece because I, you know, I sing what Joseph Maloney wrote explicitly.

And he was, you know, a prodigy.

He was a violinist.

He comes from that classical training.

And a lot of his music is like in the to that of Mozart.

And so for me, I almost experience the Caribbean aspect as, like a shade or a color that informs who my character is, what is what my character aspired to be as a product of Joseph Bologna.

You know, Volker is this, person of lower birth, in quotes, and he is aspiring to, you know, connect with his piece of the aristocracy, and his journey into that is shaded by Joseph Bologna's, you know, being that he is a mulatto, you know, person who grew up in, in 18th century France and navigating those kind of dynamics.

So if anything, it informs my character of the stakes of the historical aspect of the culture that inspires the actions that he takes, why the anonymous lover has to go.

And, almost in a sneaky way suggests very discreetly the idea that he could be, you know, with a person that he loves and the person that loves him.

So having that context is definitely informed me, like my character, it's, almost difficult to hear that during Pride Month and not connected to other sort of contemporary things, to think about who we can love and who we can express and what we can say about ourselves.

I don't know if any of those thoughts have cast your mind as we've worked on the production.

Absolutely.

I think at the heart of this libretto, at the heart of the story is this question of who, are we, you know, societally permitted to love, are permitted to marry.

That's really at the crux of this story.

And in the libretto itself, there are only references to, being highly born or lowly born.

That's what's explicitly said, as Pierce mentioned.

But something that I thought was important was to consider the life of the composer and the laws that were surrounding, who was allowed to marry in 18th century France.

So that was something we wanted to add to our production, was to talk about the race differences and the implications that that would have had in the setting of when it was composed.

But it really does ask the question, to our audiences and to all of the artists involved about, you know, what are what challenges stand in the way?

For certain people who, society may, you know, want to stand in the way of their love or their marriage.

And I want to just again, remind the audience that we're speaking to sort of the team behind an opera being performed in Rochester this weekend, The Anonymous Lover by Joseph Bologne, a black 18th century composer.

It's a fun comedy and a new production.

It's a has only been performed in modern times for just a few years, and it's being performed this Sunday afternoon as part of Finger Lakes Opera.

We have Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, who's, singing as well, core, one of the stars of the opera.

We have Stephanie Havey, the artistic director of Finger Lakes Opera, and PJ Penny, well, artistic director of Garth Fagan Dance.

Now, I know so much of Garth Fagan's work, and the company's work has been with classical music.

How much with opera and what has it been like approaching this form with, as you said, your more impressionistic approach?

Yeah, not much opera per se.

Garth, but I think it's safe to say wasn't really, an opera aficionado, but Garth really loved the Arias regard.

I really appreciated going to a concert and seeing the different, songs, presented.

So one of the first pieces that I actually learned, it was probably my second piece, was a piece called Never Top 40, and it included the Nessun Dorma aria from Toronto.

So that was kind of opening my consciousness up to what the sound of opera was like.

So fast forward to Stephanie's production, and I just want to, give Stephanie some props with wanting to even include this aspect of of Bologna's life.

Because artistically, for me, I thought it was such a wonderful, idea to include the reference to the Caribbean heritage as a juxtaposition to the, wonderful, whimsical and humorous, court reference to the court dance that Natalie Rogers, who was also our executive director of Gothic and Dance, she was asked to do, but more specifically the way so Stephanie and I, spoiler alert Stephanie opens the piece with a piece called prelude, which is when you see this contemporary dance, where this reference to his his Caribbean background and, Stephanie has a masterstroke where she has Pierce walk through the dance while it's happening and, she explained to me that she would really want it to present as if Pierce is sort of recalling some of his Caribbean background.

So to me, I thought that was a really wonderful idea, because considering the process that he's about to go through to decide whether or not this was now after four years of these sort of anonymous, interactions with, his, his wannabe lover, if it was now time for him to bring his, his romantic gestures to light so that she could actually know that it was him, and I felt like for him to kind of just dream about his background.

What does it mean to be a black man in the 18th century court?

You know, even considering all the accolades and all of the accomplishments?

But really, ultimately, what does it mean to be this guy?

And the piece obviously lives in the classical repertoire.

But, you know, for him to to see before he goes into this journey what his background really was about through dance and through the sound of, of, you know, those Caribbean drums.

It kind of, for me, gives him a sense of confidence.

Like, you know what?

Yes, it is probably time for me to go through this process and, and reveal myself.

So I thought that was such a masterstroke for you to include that and that.

Stephanie, can you talk a bit more then about, what's going on with this production?

Some of the ideas that PJ has been bringing up?

Absolutely.

Well, when when I first met to talk about this piece, we actually talked about the movie Chevalier, and there was a scene in that film that really inspired me.

It's a moment when the Chevalier, walks to the street and there are musicians in the street playing, music that, he connects with his background and his culture, and he actually joins in.

He sits down and starts playing with them, and it's sort of he steps out of that, courtly life and away from all of his titles and accolades for a moment and is just an a really joyful, beautiful moment.

Connecting with another part of who he is.

And so that idea of identity, is really the question of the whole opera, who is the identity of this anonymous lover?

But we thought, let's take a deeper dive into the question of identity.

And, Joseph belongs identity.

And so I've always seen this opera as potentially a bit autobiographical for the composer.

And the first time I heard the piece and read through the libretto, I thought, oh, how interesting to talk about who will society allow us to marry?

And and again, how that was such an important question for the composer himself.

So for me, that idea of it being autobiographical was in the concept from the beginning, and then that, led us to that scene in the film and PJ and I, really we drew from that scene and kind of that joyful expression, of identifying with your heritage and finding your grounding and your confidence in that.

And, Peter, as you're starting to sing more and more around the country and, and Glimmer Glass, where they have some amazing productions and some thoughtful direction.

What is it like taking your singing and all these contacts of movement, of acting?

To be an opera singer is really to have to be, I guess, like they say on Broadway, the triple Threat.

Yeah.

I mean, all of my training, I feel has, has really created in me this desire to be a good storyteller and on a storyteller.

So, you know, knowing how to use your body, knowing how to sing a dance, how to act, all of that serves me as like tools to create a character, to embody a person.

And that's why I like doing roles like, you know, Vancouver, where I get to bring in all these aspects of who a person is, their cultural background, their racial background, the the wants and desires they had in life and that they may have not achieved in life.

And so, you know, that training of being a glimmer gloves and or the Washington National Opera, where I was tasked with playing a myriad of different characters, I played non-binary characters.

I've played queer characters, I've played adventures, characters, more passive side and happy.

Like I played all different types of characters.

But what it all culminates in is this, this desire to be honest and authentic with real people, real stories, real lives.

And so that's kind of my artistic mission, and it's really awesome that we kind of found this team up here, to pair those things all together and create, you know, Stephanie and Garth Fagan's, you know, vision and bringing to life and Mona, let me just say about about, Pierce.

So Stephanie said, well, you know, I think I want Pierce to walk through the group, and that's probably a good place where she could walk through.

So I said, yeah, let's just write.

And so Stephanie says to Pierce, Pierce, I want you to walk through, and I want you to consider that you're kind of perceiving all of this in your mind and whatever.

And this young fella, instantly, I mean, instantly got he instantly got if he went into this sort of fog and he was, you know, feeling elation and then wonder and contemplative, oh, it was beautiful.

He.

Yes.

He's you guys again.

Absolutely beautiful.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Time at the show, I must say, like the first time we did it, I had also because it was my first time seeing you guys perform the dance.

And we had talked about as a concept of me, like waking up out of this dream.

But for myself, it really hit me the depth and the nuance behind the colors and the shades of the dance.

And so when it was my turn to get up there, I just remember feeling like I was I was almost like walking through my, my homeland, entering into a new world and not knowing what's on the other side.

And almost like saying goodbye to and like, praying good will too.

It's a it's like a call to, you know, something that you were, but also at the same time that you might not have a strong connection to, you know, he Joseph Bologna, he left, you know, or he was removed from, you know, his home at the age of eight to move to France and, you know, you have some, you know, cognitive capability at eight years old and you can still remember a lot of things.

But he dove headfirst into assimilating into a culture that was not originally his own.

And that, you know, entailed becoming a brilliant prodigy, you know, in art and culture, in fencing and in violin.

And these are not things that are, you know, the, you know, promoted as much when, you know, your mother was a slave or, you know, that culture that you associate with partially was that of slaves.

And so for him to dive into that, I just see that opening scene as almost like a transition from, like knowing that there's something that you had a connection to, but not actually knowing what that was.

So it's almost like an obscure thing where I'm in this scene and not in the scene at the same time.

That's just how I think about it.

Yeah, yeah.

Came across it was great to be talking also about the way that something old is also something new, that we experience these works.

There's certainly operas that are performed again and again with new productions or just experiencing it the first time.

But I know I've talked to several people who thought this was a contemporary opera because they hadn't heard of it, which is an exciting things.

Also think about how music theater continues to speak to people, even if opera is seen sometimes as something in the past or continuing to need to be reinvented.

Of course, music theater keeps speaking to people.

I sometimes don't seem to understand theater when everyone's not singing all their big emotions.

What are we doing?

You're just talking.

So I guess if you could each.

And then I'm also going to bring Elizabeth into this because I realize she wanted to focus on the artists.

But Elizabeth Long, executive director of Finger Lakes Opera, a big part of making this whole summer of opera, both in the big stage productions but also events with education throughout the community happen.

So I'm going to put her on the spotlight in just a moment.

To each of you, I want to hear some thoughts on what the art form.

Maybe this is kind of big, but the art form of opera.

Why do we keep turning to this way of expressing and what keeps drawing people in, or at least drawing you in, at least if you can speak for that?

Well, for me, I was drawn to opera at a young age.

In middle school I was able to attend a free dress rehearsal at local opera company.

I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and they opened up the dress rehearsal to, public schools.

And I'm so thankful for that because I had really not been exposed to classical music.

I hadn't had that opportunity.

And to sit in the front row during a rehearsal of The Magic Flute just blew my mind.

I mean, I wanted to be up there.

I wanted to be part of something on a grand scale like that.

And so that was my first attraction to opera.

And I learned more about it, you know, and I think what's so moving to me is that I've, I've always found a way to express myself and also reflect on my feelings through not just music, but also dance and acting and visual arts.

And opera is really the culmination of all of those arts together on stage.

And that's why I think it's so powerful and so unique that it's it's really it's a collaborative art form in the highest sense.

And that's something that, you know, keeps me coming back decade after decade, is the joy of collaboration and to explore new collaborations, you know, who has not been part of the opera collaboration in the past?

Like, how can we expand?

Who is part of that collab collaboration and conversation?

And for you, Pierce.

Yeah.

You know, there's something so visceral about opera in a way that other types of music don't exactly mimic or imitate, as well.

Even for myself, you know, I, I grew up singing R&B and singing in the church and singing Disney duets with my sister, and, I got exposed to opera when I was in a chorus class in the sixth grade, and my choir teacher's daughter was an opera singer, and I remember she sang for our class, and I remember thinking, how, how did she sing that loud?

And so I asked her.

I asked her, how do you sing that loud?

And she looked at me and she said, how about you study with me, I'll teach you how.

And you know, I, I started exploring it.

I started exploring the tradition of opera, the culture, the the, the history of opera.

And once you experience what it's like to produce it, you know, from your own body to find that core in your sound, to find that expression within yourself, you have a deeper connection with it.

But even outside of that, just hearing other people bare their hearts, you know, like baring all their emotions on stage through a repertoire that really forces you to engage with all of your whole body to produce the sound.

There's something so visceral and so shocking about it.

Even my partner, who has no experience with opera, I took him to see, Aida for the first time by Verity.

And, that opera, if you know, it is so dramatic and emotional and raw and and now he listens to it casually while he's working.

But that's how you expose people to, the art form.

You.

You show them what it really is, which isn't just, you know, big fancy costumes and big sets.

It's really about the human experience and how personable that can be.

And that's actually a great lead in to overall what Finger Lakes Opera is doing, because previously you have collaborated with Garth Big and Dance on Aida, that grand, Giuseppe Verdi Aria opera, not the Elton John musical, which does.

And there's another Verdi opera this season.

So Elizabeth, can you talk a little bit about what bringing opera, why, what you do with it in addition to performing it?

This is sort of a big question, but it is something that people turn to.

But it's also not easy because it is this truly collaborative, multi-faceted art form, which then also makes it a very involved process, shall I say, an expensive yes, as I say, and expensive.

I will say, first of all, thank you for having me and having all of us here.

I think, Finger Lakes Opera, when I came on board, which was about six years ago, pre-pandemic, was focused primarily on summer production and, mainly on grand opera, one grand opera and maybe a few other things.

And, we've grown from that to a company that, our summer festival is expanded.

We now do two operas in the summer, and, we also do engagement year round so that there's over 40 events, obviously different in scale.

For me, collaboration is the key to existence in this industry.

And, and when we talked about Aida, my background is orchestra management.

And when I came to opera, there are obviously skills you can transfer, marketing and fundraising.

But what I realized was, wow, it's a lot more, because there's so much more, it's acting, it's dance at times.

It's a full orchestra.

Flow uses a live orchestra, so there's a lot of facets to put together.

And we have some phenomenal resources in this community.

And sometimes I think that people from the community assume, well, if it's local, it's not necessarily, you know, you got to bring in the talent.

Will we do that?

We bring in the talent, for example, piers.

Right.

And for our production, in August.

But we also have the talent to draw from.

And Garth Fagan was a perfect example of that.

And Aida, the, triumphal march, that scene when I was told, okay, we're going to need dancers and, our former artistic director, Jerry Laureano, actually said, oh, Garth Fagan and that was how this partnership was birthed.

And it wasn't just Aida.

Last year, the relationship continued with our world premiere performance of Two Corners.

PJ, created again original choreography for two of the dancers who portrayed the younger versions of the principal characters.

So this is a three year, collaboration.

We love working with Garth Fagan, but if if arts organizations don't band together and work together, whether it's artistically or administratively.

You have to do it.

It's for the better of everybody.

And, you know, we'll see that here.

We're just so fortunate to have Stephanie and her artistic vision to be able to think, because that is not me.

And, and I.

And we're glad I'm so Stephanie with impresario.

And Stephanie is just this vision of, you know, I remember from the movie and, it's been fantastic.

And this was a wonderful opportunity.

I will say that Garth Fagan is crazy.

We're all busy.

But Garth Fagan is in the midst of their Student Movement Institute.

Right.

So the fact that they're doing this with us at their one of their busiest times is we're just so grateful.

And that's we'll take our one break in the hour.

And I will thank our guests who are in the midst of a busy production week for the Anonymous Lover by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint George, with Finger Lakes Opera performance this Sunday at Ritz Panera Theater at 2 p.m..

There's also more to come this summer from Finger Lakes Opera.

So before we go to break again, want to thank Elizabeth Long, executive director Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, our star tenor, P.J.

Penny, well, choreographer, and Stephanie Heavy, Finger Lakes Opera artistic director.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Coming up in our second hour, we bring back your conversation.

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Arts Friday I'm Mona Asami here with the production team behind The Anonymous Lover, an opera by 18th century composer Joseph Bologne, getting a fresh new production in Rochester this weekend with, Finger Lakes Opera.

We have artistic director Stephanie Heavy, Garth Figgins, artistic director and choreographer Norwood, P.J.

Penny.

Well, we have Finger Lakes Opera executive director Elizabeth Long, and we have tenor Jonathan Pierce.

Rhodes is singing one of the star roles, Val Corps in this production.

Well, I would love to get back into what someone who goes to see this will actually see here and experience, because there's what Bullen wrote.

But there and, well, what the librettist wrote with the composer wrote in terms of music.

But there's also this new movement and there's other musical ideas incorporated as well.

So, Stephanie, could you tell me a bit more about the idea behind the production?

Absolutely.

Well, the production was really conceived out of this conversation that I had with the artistic leaders of Garth Fagan Dance.

And PJ is choreographing a piece, for the professional dancers to incorporate into the opera.

But Natalie agreed to come and work with our singers.

Now, the the opera itself calls for, quote unquote ballet, as it says on the score, but it calls for social dance in the story.

The story is about a series of weddings, in fact.

And so the characters are dancing to celebrate these weddings.

So the question was, what will that dance look like?

And, how does how can that further the story?

So I talked with Natalie and, you know, of course, this is an 18th century French opera.

And as you said, those operas typically contain a lot of dance.

And she talked about her experience as a student at Juilliard and where she studied 18th century dance and baroque movement.

And she decided on her career path to move away from that very intentionally.

And so when I asked her if she would be interested in choreographing these, you know, baroque dances for us, she said absolutely.

But they absolutely will not be in the style of traditional Baroque dance.

And I said, yes, thank you.

And I love her passion and her creativity.

And so what we wanted to do was incorporate the style of movement that Garth Fagan Dance is known for, and, and find how that would be a beautiful juxtaposition with the baroque music.

So I think you get an introduction to the style of movement from the dancers at the beginning of the opera in our production, and then as we come to those moments in the story where there's social dance celebrating weddings, we are also seeing choreography in that style.

But this time it's the opera singers doing the choreography.

And so as that idea developed, I decided that I wanted to update the look and the costumes for the piece that, you know, wearing the 18th century French costumes wouldn't serve our purposes in the same way.

So we do have an updated, visual for the piece, but it's something that's really stylized.

What I thought was important was this idea of being French and chic.

These characters are courtly characters, so we kind of created our own fun, idyllic version of what French courtiers might look like with funky hairstyles and bright colors and, something really playful.

And so you'll have to come to find out exactly what that dream looks like.

It is.

Yes.

Yes.

But I think what was interesting was to just show, in our story, what does it mean to be quote unquote, French in high society?

That was something we were trying to paint really clearly.

And Pierce, how does this compare to, I guess, other experiences you've had adapting to all different director's visions and productions and finding yourself in these worlds?

Well, you know, one of the things I love about this production is how vibrant it is.

Like, these characters seem really alive.

The the image, the costumes, the set, all of it is very unified in its theme.

And so you feel you really feel like you're walking into a world where you have these aristocratic debutante ladies and you have these courtier courtiers, these these butlers who are scrambling to to create Valkyrie's vision.

And it just becomes this whole world that we get to exist in, and it and then, P.J., do you want to add anything more about sort of working into again, we've talked a little bit about the collaborative conversation you've had as part of this, but again, finding yourself in this new old world and work, well, whenever, whenever I'm asked to be involved with Finger Lakes opera production, I'm always looking for, a kind of particularity in how whatever I can say fits in with what Stephanie or whoever else I'm working with.

Can, can sort of benefit from.

But what another thing that I really love artistically about what's happening and, and how that then involves myself and, and the dancers who I also forgot to mention.

I'm so glad you mentioned that at the end, Stephanie, that we are the opening prelude section that I have choreographed to does include, nine of our Garth Fagan dance dancers, but, specifically about this production.

And a lot of times Stephanie has to deal with and Liz has to deal with the economics of an artistic production.

So to see what Stephanie has done with limited budget, to kind of pare down a production, a classic production, while still giving it the vibrancy that, you know, Peter says that he really experiences, that just just kind of gave me even more inspiration to come up with something that was also vibrant, but still sort of pared down a little bit.

So, I just I just really appreciated being a part of of how you, manage that with that on that space.

Because it's a smaller space.

It's a tricky space.

To, to create the for the designers to create the look that Stephanie was, was going for.

So I also do want to talk about the other main stage production and the other events that Finger Lakes Opera has been doing all summer, one of which, this past weekend we screened the movie Chavela at the Little.

We had a discussion and for me, getting back to this power of opera, the most amazing moment when the chorus stood up from the audience and sang us just a few minutes of this music by Joseph Bologne, and I recorded some of it on my phone, and I feel the lighting's all bad.

I don't know if I should share it, but I've been sitting there just watching it myself, thinking, this is the world I'm in.

A world where we can, where we sing together.

I guess there's been something for me again, that feeling of the arts.

So that's my own personal aside.

But I guess the other thing is, is Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto probably very famous is not a comedy tragic and faithfulness and betrayal, and the famed, probably most famous aria, la derniere mobilité.

Though Verdi is also great for his choruses and the depiction of the people know if either Elizabeth or Stephanie want to talk about this opera, and then perhaps some of the other things that you've been doing throughout the summer.

I can start and Stephanie will certainly, compliment.

But when last summer, when we were talking about this summer, and Stephanie said, this is what I'm thinking, and she intentionally with the head of music, Baroque chops pulled, said, you know, I think for the young artist production, anonymous lover comedy.

But we we need to pair it with something that is, appropriate.

And, you know, I, I always tell people it's not really an opera unless somebody dies.

I mean, it's and people who are not in the opera world think that's hilarious, but I'm like, that's really true.

And, people seem to really gravitate towards these strategy tragedies, which I think is interesting in and of itself.

But, Stephanie wanted Rigoletto, and she can talk to you about why?

Because some of it was character based and the artists that she, was thinking to cast, both of whom we got that our top choices.

But we kicked off our summer festival with, really a jubilant Juneteenth program in, on Juneteenth at Mount Olive, that Baptist church.

Pierce was one of five singers that we had, and this is the second year we've done it in partnership with Mount.

All of that.

It is, the official kickoff will continue to be the official kickoff, and it's a free event.

And I have to say that we had a probably an increase of 20% in attendance.

It really was it was joyful and a wonderful way to commemorate what that holiday is.

But also for Finger Lakes Opera.

And we've done some other events, as well, the Chevalier screening with a phenomenal panel discussion and then the pop up performance.

Right.

We had a happy hour event this past Tuesday.

We have another happy hour event.

In a week.

So there's free events.

There's paid events.

Our relationship with, All right.

We're this has been a really fruitful, and collaborative and wonderful opportunity to get in to that space, at Panera and, it.

Right.

There's seven events.

This will be for number four.

So there's a lot to come and that's you mentioned, of course, with Rigoletto.

And then we talk about, the national and local talent that is national caliber.

We've got on the Eastman School of Music faculty, Joshua Conyers, we have Jasmine Saunders, who's from Rochester, who also, made her debut recently.

So I guess, can we talk a little bit again about the voices?

And I guess this is partially of course, Eastman at the heart of our community began so much.

Rochester is this hub for so many artistic connections.

Absolutely.

Well, when you're planning a season artistically, it it's so thrilling when the artistic vision for the pieces you'd like to present meets with artists that you cherish and admire and hope, to collaborate with.

And yes, as you mentioned, Joshua Conyers is an artist who, was featured in our festival last season, has been known to the company, but also someone that I've known for for years in this industry and someone that we wanted to collaborate with again and really feature.

And he's just perfect for the role of Rigoletto.

It's a role he's been, you know, working with for many, many years.

And I think he's at the prime of his career.

And this is the perfect moment for him to portray that role.

And Jasmine Saunders is another singer who, as you mentioned, was a student at Eastman, is from the area and so Flo has been connected with her since she was a student, but she's just gone on to incredible success nationally and made her met debut this season.

And I've stayed in touch with her over the years since meeting her, on the first production that I did with Finger Lakes Opera, The Barber of Seville.

And so we're just thrilled to invite her back to Rochester, and she's making a real debut in the role of Gilda.

And Gilda is, I don't know is that spoilers of an opera is centuries old to talk about.

She's the daughter of Rigoletto, and she's in love with that terrible Duke who sings that women are fickle.

But then, of course, he's actually the awful one.

That's right.

I don't I don't think it's a spoiler alert.

I mean, Rigoletto is one of the most loved operas in the canon.

It's one of my favorite pieces.

And that's because of Verdi's dramatic writing.

Every moment of the opera is so well considered, dramatically speaking.

You know, sometimes in operas from certain time periods, we feel like, oh, maybe the music repeats several times.

And so as, creatives working on that piece, we have to help imbue meaning behind, well, the 10th repetition this time we're going to, you know, add something.

But the way that Verdi writes is so immediate.

It's just incredible theater on its own.

And then the music is so expressive and, accentuating each dramatic moment.

And in fact, Elizabeth referenced that there were some reasons, perhaps behind characters or certain themes that, drew you to Rigoletto at this time.

I think that Stephanie, when she was here in 2021, just so that we understand Jasmine was in the production that we did of Barber of Seville, but she was a supernumerary, and that means an extra in the opera dancing world not have the fanciest terms for things.

And, well, so we I've had to learn some of these terms, but I remember Jasmine, that was during the pandemic and we had we passed out test kits to everybody.

They had to come pick them up.

And I remember seeing Jasmine meeting Jasmine because I handed her her two test kits and she was coming from a break on Wegmans, and she was wearing her Wegmans.

And I'm like, look at that.

She works at Wegmans.

And I knew she was an undergrad at Eastman.

And I've I've said this, I thought, you know, Jasmine was interested in singing, but probably not going to go in to singing, which is really hilarious.

But that, that, that was my perception.

And then her career has taken off.

But it isn't just about Finger Lakes Opera featuring young talent that is really there, because it's not just Jasmine, it's Jonathan.

I mean, Jonathan is making his debut at Houston Grand Opera.

He's been at lyric.

We can offer these roles, these really big roles to young people that perhaps they might not get quite yet at the Matt.

And, so Stephanie has that flair of identifying talent.

We were so lucky to be able to find somebody of Jonathan's stature.

That fit into this role.

It this season has been, in my opinion, kind of magical.

And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

This this summer it does.

Well, I think of the power of Verdi's music.

I, you know, grew up with classical music, but not in love with opera until I actually really started seeing it.

Some of those met opera at the movie productions and when I was a student at Indiana.

But even today, thinking of sort of just challenging times, whether it's personally or worldwide, that was the duo from Don Carlo or the two friends that are declaring they will heroically stand for each other, was the first thing that came to my heart.

I felt I needed Verdi's heroic spirit in me, even though I know we're talking about some rather unsavory characters in Rigoletto.

But there's so much passion I've.

Every time I see Love Poem, I said, well, I know what's going to happen.

And then I still cry.

And I've taken people to their first opera that actually Finger Lakes Opera for Carmen was one of my friend's first operas, and I will say, he said, I don't know, want to know anything about it beforehand.

And a small thing, the supertitles didn't work, so he certainly didn't know what was going on.

It was I wouldn't bring up a whole thing.

He decided it was about the Spanish Revolution before he got there.

But the great thing was that once the story started happening, he absolutely knows what was going on.

Whether or not you know the words, you you know, there is.

I again, don't want to turn this into my personal ad for how much I love opera, but I'm fascinated by this art form because it's got a weird history and it continues to speak to us in different ways.

And, so I'm very glad that these productions are happening in a different ways.

But I also keep hearing about events where kids are hearing opera singing there at Joseph Avenue Arts and Cultural Center, other things like that.

So I guess in we just have a few minutes before we get back, perhaps a little bit.

Just want to go back to that fascinating historical figure of Joseph Boulogne.

It's a little bit more about what else I mean, how it is when how young people are reacting, you know, like kids, kids, not just young artists, I guess, who are already kind of grown up but emerging in the field are reacting to this art.

I think that it's really important that young people understand that their options are open across the board.

When Finger Lakes Opera brings children's productions into elementary schools, which we do every fall, I think it's important for kids to see people who remind them of themselves.

So when kids are able to see, young black tenor in this role in the lead, they realize, wait a, I could I could do that.

Same with, Joshua Conyers, who is our Rigoletto.

He grew up in the Bronx.

He has an amazing story, actually, that we've spoken about.

And you should definitely listen to his album, The Miracle and Legacy, and learn more about him and hear him in Rigoletto.

But he's, an amazing singer, but also an artist who very willingly speaks about how art really saved his life.

So but I will say it's very important to continue for us, and, and for organizations like WXXI, this is why this time can be very stressful.

Because federal, funding the potential of it being cut is terrifying.

If the Rochester area loses WXXI, all the arts suffer.

So if you're listening, please keep that in mind.

We mean represented in that is right about right now.

But he is a very, you know, kids need to understand you're not because you might think, hey, I, I'm not sure that's really for me.

It's for everybody.

And opera historically has not had, has not done a good job.

We're working and we're improving and having somebody like Stephanie and then doing collaborations with Garth Fagan, certainly, open it up.

But it's all about accessibility and making people understand this could be you could do this.

And that is, I think, the chance to discover that thing you love, if no one shows it to you, really is.

That's that missed opportunity.

Someone else told me I just learned about something because someone said right before I walked into a room, hey, do you know about that?

You know, so perhaps for our last few minutes, actually, although I said, you know, it could get into more history of Joseph Allen, we could talk about this production, which I'm really excited, also incorporates some of his violin concertos because that's a so actually just very quickly that and then I want to talk everyone to sort of talk about just a maybe what again, having that accessibility to arts, whether it is opera or dance or other forms of art, it's all different parts of the same picture.

Well, Joseph Bologne was very famous, as a violinist and a composer for violin works, and several of those pieces, have been continue to be part of the repertoire.

So when we were presenting this opera, we wanted to incorporate a piece that he had written for violin.

So as was very common in 18th century opera practice, we have inserted some other numbers of Joseph Malone's into this opera, a few arias.

But, we're very excited about a violin solo that comes from a violin concerto, that our concertmaster will be playing in.

And it's it's just an excellent moment to sort of it's an Easter egg, in a way, for, lovers of the composer and those learning about the composer for the first time.

And we're kind of putting his handiwork on display there.

Well, I love that in, the opera piece by Metheny, there's that beautiful meditation where the actual suddenly an instrumentalist gets to stand up at the met and take a bow because they have the best aria of all, in a way.

So I guess.

Yeah, PJ, if you would talk a bit about, you know, it's a big thing, but if you have any story of sort of finding the arts early on or when you've been connecting with the youth, in this movement Institute this weekend.

Yeah.

No, we we're definitely, communicating with the youth.

And it's so wonderful to see, first of all, first time youthful people experiencing the, institute, but then also to see people that have maybe come 3 or 4 times or have come maybe when they were in their teens, and then they will always come back to visit and say, you know, we aren't dancers.

We never really intended to be dancers, but the experience of dancing with this community of people, because it's pretty much I think I can safely say the most diverse summer movement institute in the city.

So this is where people have an opportunity to actually get in touch with and actually touch people that they might not necessarily have been able to communicate with, dance with, talk with, be on their phones with.

But but the youthful, the youthful accessibility is so important, especially in opera because I know, to me, I thought opera was an elitist person's experience until I went to Aida in New York at the met to prepare myself for the Aida performance.

And in the rafters, it was packed, and it was everybody from every possible conceivable part of the community that was at the met.

And it was the Sunday afternoon.

So that blew my mind.

And, so at any rate, I saw a puppet show when I was probably seven.

It was Peter Pan, and it just I was completely mesmerized.

I didn't actually get into theater until I was in high school, but there was still a part of me that responded to seeing the puppets bound all over the stage.

And and I ended up, started singing bound all over the room.

And if I heard a certain kind of music, I would dance.

Never thought I was going to be a dancer, but here I am.

Well, I know we're just coming to that note.

I bet so many of our listeners have these sort of stories, actually.

So I guess I'll give you, last word and maybe 20s or so.

I mean, I echo what everyone said about accessibility.

You know, I only do this because someone told me I could and that I can.

And so I'm very thankful that there's people, companies, administrators that still kind of tell kids that you can.

So finger Lakes opera.org this Sunday afternoon at two at our it's Panera theater for the anonymous lover and then Rigoletto.

Oh in August and a few other events throughout the summer.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh.

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